Ask Nelly: What is ConTeXt?; What is LaTeX3?; Why should a college student use LaTeX?; How do I make temporary margin notes?

Ask Nelly is a question and answer column. Nelly is the quiet
person who sits at the back corner desk, who knows a lot, and when
asked any question is always ready with a patient answer.
If Nelly doesn't know the answer, Nelly will know an expert who has the answer.
Feel free to Ask Nelly about any aspect of
LaTeX, TeX, Context, etc.

Q: What is ConTeXt?

A: ConTeXt is a macro package for TeX written by Hans Hagen and Ton
Otten of Pragma ADE in the Netherlands. Like LaTeX, ConTeXt is
applicable to most typesetting needs. Unlike LaTeX, ConTeXt is
monolithic, by which I mean it is designed, implemented, and
distributed as a whole. Its completeness is evident in the breath of
its concepts and consistency of its syntax.

Forged in the crucible of the educational publishing world, ConTeXt
has grown to accommodate the most advanced and demanding typesetting
needs. The practical upshot of this is that if you need a particular
feature, it probably is already implemented. A few of its most noteworthy
features include:

multiple language interfaces including: English, German, and Dutch

a font naming scheme that allows you mix and match different typefaces

a native XML parser

native XML-FO support

native MathML support

integrated graphics with MetaPost

full color support in both rgb and cmyk

direct access to and control over the interactive capabilities of PDF

I would not say that ConTeXt has a steep learning curve but rather a
long one. Thankfully, there is sufficient documentation, and a
vibrant development community to offer support.

Visit the Pragma website at www.pragma-ade.com to learn more about
ConTeXt. There you will find both examples to whet your appetite and
manuals to answer your questions. I recommend you start by reading the
introductory 'ConTeXt an Excursion' and then move onto the full
ConTeXt manual. You will find additional examples of, discussions
about, and documentation for ConTeXt on the community wiki at:
contextgarden.net.
Finally, you can subscribe to the ConTeXt
mailing list at:
www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context.

This question was answered by Michael Guravage, a consultant who specializes in content management
and document engineering. He can be reached at

Q: I have LaTeX2ε installed on my computer,
but I see occasional mentions of LaTeX3. What is that?

A: LaTeX3 is a pointer into the future; a long-term project
by a team of experts; and someday a new LaTeX. The project has already
produced LaTeX2ε, where the ε means
it is incrementally better than the first version, LaTeX 2.09.
Some of the improvements being worked on are in help, error-handling,
control of where your floats (figures and tables) appear,
documentation, and font control. You can go to the newsgroup
comp.text.tex and add your own wishes to the list. The LaTeX3 project
and its personnel are described at
http://www.latex-project.org/latex3.html
where you can find the report
http://www.latex-project.org/guides/ltx3info.pdf
by Frank Mittelbach and Chris Rowley that contributed to this answer.

The question was answered by David L. Elliott who is Professor
Emeritus of Mathematical Systems at Washington University,
St. Louis, and currently a visiting senior research scientist at
the Institute for Systems Research,
University of Maryland. He has edited a volume of research papers using LaTeX
and PostScript and is currently working on his own book using LaTeX.
Email:

Q: Why should a college student use LaTeX?

A: I have heard this question asked a number of times in the past couple of years
as I have introduced LaTeX into my department. I have a number of answers that I give to
my students.

The first reason I give is that they are in college to learn. Learning how to
use LaTeX will make it easier for students to learn how to use other markup
languages. This will be an important skill to have as the Internet and its associated
languages continue to bloom. The publishing industry is heading toward XML and related
technologies, and students should want to be prepared to flourish in this new landscape.

Next, there is an increasing expectation for students entering graduate programs to know
some form of typesetting software. My introduction to LaTeX came in my first graduate
course when the instructor demanded that we type our homework solutions. He didn't care
what program we used, but he agreed to cover the cost of LaTeX manuals for any
interested students.

Then, I sometimes hear the question, "Why is there an increasing expectation for students,
especially science students, to know
LaTeX?" I respond by talking about the fantastic output generated by LaTeX. It is true
that word processing programs can create equations, but in my opinion the output pales in
comparison to that of LaTeX. Add to that the fact that for most of these programs one
needs to go back to the equation composer for every equation, and you soon find that you
are spending hours creating equations. While in LaTeX, after a few weeks of dedicated
study, one is able to enter equations practically as fast as one can type.

The last thing I tell my students is that LaTeX allows them the opportunity to
focus on the writing. With LaTeX the author needs to organize the individual segments
of the document and worry about the content. The class file will handle the formatting.
If you decide to reorder the chapters or sections within a document, it doesn't mean
hours of work trying to renumber all of the equations, figures, and references. At worst
the author could spend a few hours after the document is written tweaking breaks and
looking for a package that will typeset something in a particular fashion. My students
and I have found this to be a great benefit.

These are just a few of the reasons I think students can benefit from learning LaTeX.
For most students it will be an investment of a few weeks that will open the door to a
wonderful journey. I am still learning things about LaTeX and typesetting twelve years
later, and I think that is a good thing.

This question was answered by Jon W. Breitenbucher.
Jon is Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematical Sciences at the College of
Wooster (Ohio, USA) and will soon move into a new position as
Instructional Technology Specialist and Adjunct Professor. He was
introduced to LaTeX in 1992 and has been using it for all course
related materials since that time. One of his goals is to introduce
LaTeX to as many people as he can. He can be reached at

Q: How do I make temporary margin notes?

A: Here at Duke University Press, we provide our authors with PDF
proofs. If, at this point, we still have questions about content, wording, line breaks in
displays, etc., we put our queries in the margins. An author recently asked how we did
this. The generic details are illustrated in the attached pdf file.

This question was answered by Steve Grathwohl. Steve is a developer of digital
content for Duke University Press. He began fooling around with TeX in the late
1980s and, aided and abetted by Duke, is still doing so. Steve is the local host
for Practical TeX 2005 in Chapel Hill, NC this coming summer.
Contact him at